Towards a new model of education cooperation with China --A solution by the Finn-Sino Education Cooperation Network Yuzhuo Cai CEREC, University of Tampere

 What is the network?  How can the network help overcome the current challenges faced by Finnish educational institutions in cooperation with China? Main topics

 Open platform initiated by CEREC and FERC  Governing/advisory board  Executive body  Operational units  Public/free service  Public funding, sponsorship, project funding  Ambition to become Nordic-Sino Education Cooperation Network What is Finn-Sino Education Cooperation Network?

 To provide knowledge and information about both countries’ education practices and policy development  To analyse the relevance of one's education system and education practices on the other  To facilitate and support dialogues between key actors in both field  To establish a database and network of key actors and resources in the field  To educate Finnish Chinese education expert and Chinese Finnish education expert  To team up interesting actors and apply external funding for ad hoc projects  To provide tailor-made services  To monitor the cooperation and develop quality assurance standards Aims of the network

 Little knowledge about Chinese higher education  Ineffective approaches to promoting Finnish higher education  Lack of trust building with Chinese partners  Lack of successful experiences of developing joint degree programmes with Chinese partners and particularly education export  Lack of coordination between Finnish higher education institutions  Insufficient motivation and commitment (especially on education export)  Unclear vision on international cooperation and education export Challenges in Finland’s education coopeartion with China

 Lack of cooperation and coordination among Finnish educational institutions at the national level The most essential problem

Problems caused by the ineffective cooperation  Repetition in gaining basic knowledge about Chinese education  Ineffective market approaches and unaffordable marketing costs  Lack of information sharing and network building  Slow learning process in education cooperation with China Solutions by the network  High quality research in the field by highly competent teams  Promotion of one Finnish brand and development of quality assurance system  Network building mechanisms and information sharing channels.  Studying existing cooperation cases

 Stimulating national coordination trough quality assurance development: This is Finnish Education  Capacity development trough training local experts. Two examples

 A quality assurance system for training Chinese educational professionals.  Capacity building for Finnish training providers  Based on the understanding of both Finnish and Chinese education system as well as training practices, we will help Finnish education providers to develop their capacity and skills for training Chinese professional learners and list them as qualified operators under the “This is Finnish Education Training Series”.  Promote one brand and provide one stop shopping for Chinese clients  Meanwhile, we will promote the training series in China as a symbol for high quality education training programmes in Finland for Chinese customers.  So the benefits for Finnish training providers: instead of hunting for clients, the Chinese clients will find you. ”This is Finnish Education”

 Capacity building: Training more and more Finns to become Chinese education experts  Seminars/short term training  Research projects  MA and PhD education Sustainable solution by the network

 We are now more confident as FERC (Finnish Education Research Centre) is joining the network!